Saturday, November 14, 2015

Germany October 2015

Kia Soul EV Goes Through The Roof

A record 2.725 EV's were sold last month in Germany, up 122% regarding the same month last year, with the EV Share going further north to 0,68%, up some 0,05% regarding previous month and a significant departure from 2014, having recorded at the time 0,44% share.

As tradition in the German EV market, there was a lot to talk about in the top positions, beginning with the Kia Soul EV pulverizing the monthly sales record for a single model, by registering 980(!) units in October, breaking at the same time the YTD record that belonged to the Renault Twizy (2.413 units) since 2012...Register the fact that i mentioned registrations and not actual sales, as a friendly source has provided me numbers that prove that many Soul EV registered in Germany are quickly sent to their real destination, Norway, a place that has more imported Soul EV (991 units) this year than first time registrations (630 sales) in the same period. The norwegian Kia importer has tried to displace part of the allotment from Germany to its home market, but insiders suggest that the german Kia importer has repeatedly denied the request, mostly because of benefits (Cold hard €€€€) it gets from the mothership Kia. Politics, politics...But back to more earthly performances, the Renault Zoe posted an impressive 243 units performance, its best result of the year and also the first monthly podium of 2015, only behind the artificially doped Soul EV.

The Passat GTE jumped to Third in October, thanks to 229 units, and it looks poised to collect several #1's next year, while in the suddenly crowded Luxury SUV class, the Porsche Cayenne Plug-In continues to lead the race (29 units), but for how long?

Pl

Model

Sales

1

Kia Soul EV

980

2

Renault Zoe

243

3

Volkwwagen Passat GTE

229

4

BMW i3

201

5

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV

167

Looking at the YTD ranking, the Kia Soul EV jumped to First and has surely secured this year Best Seller Trophy, a first for the Korean carmaker in western markets and probably the only trophy Kia will gather this year, now that the Renault-Samsung SM3 ZE is winning the race in their domestic market.The following positions remain the same, with the Mitsu Outlander PHEV leading a compact race between four models, the #9 Renault Zoe approached the #8 Nissan Leaf rear, while the Smart Fortwo ED is slowly falling into oblivion (23 units, its worst result in the last four years!).The Volkswagen Passat GTE jumps four positions to #12, looking to reach the Top 10 next month, while the Mercedes C350e also climbed two positions to #17, surpassing its segment rival, the Volvo V60 Plug-in.

There is a newcomer to the ranking, with the Volvo XC90 Plug-in landing with its first unit, in a segment that is becoming more and more populated, as there are now five luxury plug-in SUV's to choose from.

Looking into the manufacturers ranking, Volkswagen remains in the lead (21% share), followed by the surprise Kia (14%), with BMW in Third with 13%, Mitsubishi #4 with 11%, and right behind we have Audi, with 10%.

It's good to see that Germany are getting close to the 1%-mark. When you have the information it would be nice to get the single month percentage in the posts as well as YTD, to be able to see the trends.Especially this late in the year when YTD is pretty much set even if monthly sales would jump to 2% or more all the sudden.